Honestly, I would leave it as late as possible. Our son was pretty much exactly 2.5 when we toilet-trained, and he had got the whole poo and wee thing down within three days, and, although we kept putting night-time nappies on for a couple of weeks, in fact he never wet them at all. It was as if something just clicked.

You could start bringing out the potty and just having it around but I wouldn't expect anything much just yet. Don't try and rush it, you'll only end up with puddles everywhere. Just let your lo lead the way, a lot of them see nothing wrong with the current arrangements and are in no hurry to change them.

I think I'm going to be in the minority here, but I've been putting my daughter on the potty since she was 7 months old. She used to wait until I'd taken her nappy off to do a poo, or else have a very obvious poo face and so I just sat her on it more to see what she would do. At 10 months she almost exclusively poops on the potty and we catch lots of wees too.

I'm not sure whether it'll make potty training any quicker in the long run, but it's getting her used to the potty and I doubt she'll be wary of it when the time comes to fully train her.

So I say go for it, especially as your little one seems to be communicating that they don't like to be in a dirty nappy.

Eclecticmama That is farrr too early. Chances are they may revert. Or start holding it in or getting very upset when they need the potty and can't get to it themselves and are unable to tell you they need it somehow xx

Kenzie - that's what we did. On toilet at each nappy change if possible from sitting up well (6-7months). All poos went in toilet before a year old. Ds1 was 15 months and ds2 18 months when both fully toilet trained daytime. Ds2 was also fully dry nighttime at that age, ds1 was around 2.5 years to be dry nights.

the best thing is that for 1,2,3 months you start every day playing int he toilet and showing him how things are done... bring a toy, doll to the potty, show him siblings going to the potty,,show him videos of kids going to the potty,,, (this is a good one : www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znv3YVqqbL8 )

watch, watch , watch and watch others!! and play play play play!!there are many apps (try the one of potty training learning with the animals)

then after 2,3 months you can try the phisical part! and he or she willl know what to do!;)

What do you think happens in countries where nappies aren't easily available? Kids in Africa train very early and don't have issues.

The age of training in the UK has gone from being from 18 months to now nearer 2.5. Mainly due to the availability of easily disposable nappies.

Well, yes, because there's less of a work 'cost' in keeping your child in nappies longer, assuming you can afford disposables or a cloth nappy service. Likewise in hot countries where children live outdoors in few clothes, it's less effort to take off a nappy early and see what happens.

However, if the OP, like many people on here, is living in a wet, cool, temperate climate where under-threes spend a lot of time indoors wearing clothes, often multiple layers, there are persuasive reasons to leave it till the child is slightly older so you can essentially toilet-train fully in a few days, rather than starting a year or eighteen months earlier and spending months over it. Even if I had thought this was a good idea, it wasn't something I could reasonably ask my childminder to do.

My son is almost 3 and not potty trained yet! He has speech delay and can't tell me when he needs to go. However my friend with a 3,5 very chatty child is not trained yet either, so you have plenty of time.